The 21st Show

Best of: Chocolate’s complicated cultural history

 
A tray of chocolate eggs with protective face masks are laid out on a tray at the Chocolate Line warehouse of Dominique Persoone in Bruges, Belgium.

A tray of chocolate eggs with protective face masks are laid out on a tray at the Chocolate Line warehouse of Dominique Persoone in Bruges, Belgium. AP Photo/Virginia Mayo

For the last part of today’s show, we talked about chocolate, its cultural history, and how it turned into the global force it remains today. There will be a team of researchers at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom focusing on that subject for the next four years. As it happens, that work will be led by a scholar based right here in Illinois.

She joined The 21st to talk about the surprisingly complicated history of the sweet treat.

This conversation originally aired on January 5, 2023

GUEST:

Kathryn Sampeck

Professor of Anthropology, Illinois State University; Recipient of the British Academy Global Professorship

 

 

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